Uncategorized – Duke AI Health

Chief AI Health Scientist Ricard Henao Named Associate Professor

Duke AI Health congratulates Chief AI Health Scientist Ricardo Henao, PhD, on his promotion to the rank of Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics in the Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Henao is a major presence in health data science at Duke, where his leadership and expertise in machine learning methods and implementation have made him a sought-after collaborator and instructor. “Dr. Henao is a major asset to Duke AI Health and to the larger Duke community,” said Michael Pencina, PhD, director of Duke AI Health and vice dean for data science at the School of Medicine. “We feel fortunate to be able to benefit from such a rare combination of talent and knowledge spanning research, application, and teaching.”

Duke AI Health Director Michael Pencina Surpasses 100K Citations for Academic Research

Duke AI Health Director and Vice Dean for Data Science Michael J. Pencina, PhD, has achieved a major academic milestone: according to Google Scholar’s analytics, he has recently passed the 100,000 mark for academic citations of his work. Pencina, who in addition to his leadership role in Duke’s efforts to develop, evaluate, and implement ethical and equitable data science, has also worked extensively on the development and evaluation of risk prediction models and clinical trial designs.

Request for Comments: Coalition for Health AI’s White Paper on Bias, Equity, and Fairness

As a member of the Coalition for Health AI, Duke AI Health is working to develop a consensus-driven framework to drive high-quality health care through the adoption of credible, fair, and transparent health AI systems. The coalition is convening a series of virtual workgroup sessions to define core principles and has published a white paper from its first meeting: “Bias, Equity, and Fairness.” Please review the paper and submit your feedback by Sept. 15: https://bit.ly/3wbAXQx. With the help of your ideas, the Coalition for Health AI can advance towards establishing clear and appropriate guidelines and guardrails for the fair, ethical, and useful application of AI and machine learning in health care settings.

Portrait of Duke AI Health Director Michael Pencina, PhD

Much-Touted Genomic Test Score Shows Minimal Utility in Study Led by AI Health Director Michael Pencina

New research led by Duke AI Health Director Michael Pencina, PhD, published recently in the journal Circulation, looked at the value of using a genomic test to predict the future risk of heart disease. Pencina and colleagues found that the genomic test, referred to as the polygenic risk score (PRS), only marginally added to the predictive information obtained through the assessment of traditional risk factors, concluding that the PRS “had minimal clinical utility”.

Call for Student Applications: AI Health’s Fall 2022 HDS Research Program

We invite Duke students to apply for the Health Data Science (HDS) fall research program. This competitive program, based in Duke AI Health, is designed to allow students who have previous experience in data science to continue their engagement with substantive applied projects. The HDS Research Program offers Duke students, both undergraduate and graduate, the opportunity to be a part of research teams applying advanced machine learning (deep learning) to important areas of medicine. Participating students will be mentored by leading Duke faculty involved in data science research, often with guidance by practicing clinicians. The fall will culminate in a showcase session where student teams will present their results.

Duke Authors Introduce Framework for Clinical Algorithm Oversight

A group of Duke Health researchers recently shared their insights on approaches to managing the complex issues that are emerging as “algorithmic medicine” increasingly becomes part of clinical care at hospitals and health systems. The authors, who comprise faculty and staff from Duke AI Health, Duke Health Technology Solutions, the Duke Institute for Health Innovation, and other physicians and researchers from Duke University and Duke University Health System, published an account of their approach to evaluating and monitoring the use of algorithmic predictive models at Duke Health hospitals and clinics. The article, titled “A framework for the oversight and local deployment of safe and high-quality prediction models,” was published on May 31 in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA). It showcases the processes and procedures by which an expert group at Duke Health known as Algorithm-Based Clinical Decision Support (ABCDS) Oversight reviews, approves, and manages predictive models intended for use in patient care settings.

Duke AI Health Spark Seminar Series: Medical Imaging AI – Where do we go from here?

Can AI safely automate medical decision-making tasks to improve patient outcomes? In this talk, the presenters will share the challenges in the development and translation of medical AI, and how they are being addressed through a blend of innovation in algorithm development, dataset curation, and implementation design. They will first talk about self-supervised learning methods for medical image classification that leverage large unlabeled datasets to reduce the number of manual annotations required for expert-level performance. Then, they will discuss open benchmarks that can help the community transparently measure advancements in generalizability of algorithms to new geographies, patient populations, and clinical settings. Third, they will share insights from studies that investigate how to optimize human-AI collaboration in the context of clinical workflows and deployment settings. Altogether, this talk will cover key ways in which we can realize the potential of medical AI to make healthcare more accurate, efficient and accessible for patients worldwide.

Duke Machine Learning Summer School 2022

The Duke+Data Science program is pleased to announce the Duke Machine Learning Summer School 2022, offered in June as a live five-day class that provides lectures on the fundamentals of machine learning. The curriculum in the MLSS is targeted to individuals interested in learning about machine learning, with a focus on recent deep learning methodology. The MLSS will introduce the mathematics and statistics at the foundation of modern machine learning, and provide context for the methods that have formed the foundations of rapid growth in artificial intelligence (AI).

Call for Student Applications: HDS Summer 2022 Research Program

We invite Duke students to apply for the Health Data Science (HDS) summer research program. This competitive program, based in Duke AI Health, is designed to allow students who have previous experience in data science to continue their engagement with substantive applied projects. The Advanced Machine Learning Projects in Health Data Science offers Duke students, both undergraduate and graduate, the opportunity to be a part of research teams applying advanced machine learning (deep learning) to important areas of medicine. Participating students will be mentored by leading Duke faculty involved in data science research, often with guidance by practicing clinicians. The summer will culminate in a showcase session where student teams will present their results.

Maciej Mazurowski Joins Duke AI Health to Coordinate New Medical Imaging Initiative

Duke AI Health welcomes Maciej Mazurowski, PhD, who will join its Faculty Council as Director of Radiology Imaging. At AI Health, Dr. Mazurowski will coordinate the AI Health Initiative for Medical Imaging. This new effort will engage experts in machine learning and clinical medicine from across Duke’s campus to foster and accelerate the development, validation, and clinical implementation of machine learning algorithms for medical imaging. “I’m excited to undertake this new challenge and I’m looking forward to working with experts and leadership across the entire campus to build on existing technical and clinical strengths in medical imaging AI at Duke,” Dr. Mazurowski said.